September 21, 1991

Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d ended his week of talks with Syrian, Jordanian, Israeli and Palestinian leaders today, without getting final confirmation from any of them that they would attend the American-proposed Middle East peace conference. Reporters traveling with Mr. Baker were told on his flight from Damascus to a refueling stop here that the United States may simply issue invitations to the four parties for a conference in October, if they do not stop "fiddling" over terms for attending talks.

Democrats are surveying a field of Presidential Challengers that almost no one could have predicted a year ago. Page 6.

President Bush sent a conciliatory letter to American Jewish groups this week in hopes of calming the uproar over proposed United States loan guarantees for Israel. But his tough line on the loans and the disclosure that he wants to link them to West Bank settlements continued to str ain White House relations with pro-Israel groups and Congress. The letter, in which he tried to reassure Jewish groups after his harsh attack last week on the pro-Israel lobby, was described by a senior official as an attempt to "get the issue back into a conventional public policy dispute, as opposed to an unprecedented challenge by a President to the power of the pro-Israel lobby." [ Text of Mr. Bush's letter, page 4. ]

On a scorching weekday morning in July, Bob Perdue, a highway maintenance supervisor, was working with two of his crew on the southbound lanes of the Henry Hudson Parkway on the skinny northern neck of Manhattan. Beyond the right-hand shoulder of the road, just north of the Dyckman Street exit, the land falls steeply away to the Hudson River. There, at the base of a tree, half covered with branches and leaves, he saw it -- an iridescent blue picnic cooler.

The New York State Division of Human Rights today ordered the State University center at Buffalo to bar all military recruiters from campus because homosexuals are not allowed to serve in the armed forces. But, only a few hours later, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo called the order unenforceable. It was one of the more unusual -- and rapid -- exchanges of a political football here in years. The Governor was forced to choose between backing the division's ruling, which was hailed by gay rights groups and based on an interpretation of a 1983 order signed by Mr. Cuomo, or renouncing a policy that Republicans immediately seized on as an affront to the United States military. By the end of the day, the military had prevailed. Republicans Express Outrage The back-and-forth began when the order barring the recruiters was issued by the acting director of the division's Office of Lesbian and Gay Concerns, which ordinarily is given broad authority to remedy discrimination against homosexuals in state government.